Build a Nintendo NES PC

Step 9 Current use

The NES PC is currently attached to my living room TV. I use two Dual Shock (Playstation) controllers via USB adapter. They work great. I have an emulator frontend that works entirely with the gamepads, so I don't need to have a keyboard or mouse attached to the NES PC at all. The frontend lets me choose games and play them, watch Divx/DVD video, listen to internet radio etc.

The following consoles currently work perfectly on the NES PC:
- NES
- Super NES
- Sega Mega Drive / Genesis
- Sega Master System
- MAME (Arcade)
- Game Boy (Color)
- Game Boy Advance
- Sega Game Gear
- Turbo-Grafx 16 / PC-Engine
- Sony Playstation (not 2)

UPDATE: Nintendo 64
I've added another console for the NES PC: The Nintendo 64. It is by far the most resource-intensive console to emulate, so I tested a few games to get a better idea of how playable it was. I used the Project64 emulator with 640x480 resolution and 16-bit colour depth. No anti-aliasing or texture effects.

Super Mario 64: CPU usage averaged around 80%, with peaks at 90-95%. The video was perfectly smooth and gameplay was responsive. Occasionally, with a lot happening on the screen, the audio would clip for a moment resulting in a faint clicking noise. All in all, the game is perfectly playable!

Star Fox 64: CPU usage was constantly >= 90%. The game menus had occasionally jerky video and some audio stutering. Gameplay was near perfect though, with no in-game video problems and occasional audio stuttering. Not a perfect score, but very playable.

GoldenEye 007: This was obviously the hardest game to pull off. CPU usage was at or near 100% all the time. The video and audio were both jerky/stuttering in both the menus and in-game. The framerate couldn't stay at acceptable levels, which resulted in poor responsiveness. I won't call it unplayable, but the jerkiness makes it a bad choice for my current setup.

Conclusion: Most Nintendo 64 games will be very playable if not perfect, but a lot of the more resource-intensive ones will not be very smooth. All in all, I'm positively surprised by the results and happy to add another quality console to the list :)

I hope you enjoyed my Instructable.

Comments

[PsYcHoTiC13]

any clue if a dreamcast emulator would run on this?

[NYPA]

I'm not THIS tech savvy, but I know a lot more than my piers. Dreamcast emulators are very heard to set up. You need a lot of things. The only tutorial movie I've seen uses the dreaded torrent file.

[snowluck2345]

whats wrong with a torrent file.

[Polarize]

I got dreamcast working with ease on my laptop, so it must be possible

[RichardBronosky]

Cool idea, but it's really sad to see Windows get installed on a Nintendo anything. This would have been a great use of Linux. Installing Windows just increased the price of this project by $199. As it is you have a game console that you run anti-virus and anti-spy software on. That's just wrong.

I think I may use one on these as a MythTV Frontend, including MAME (video game console emulation on Linux) of course. Thanks for the idea!

[TOCO]

I have an xp cd from an old dell dimension 8250 that was for restoring the hdd. I have that copy of windows (not exactly legally) installed on around 7 computers. But I always upgraded to sp2 or sp3 before registering. But I think that some form of linux would be much better for this project.

[fmeade]

use Ubuntu it has all of the same emulators and is as easy to use as window for noobs + its free i recommend notebook version 10.4 it also uses less space play from flash or hard drive

[hatsuli]

Heh, the reason I used Windows is because I'm familiar with it and it has all the emulators I need. Some consoles (Nintendo 64?) don't have great Linux emulators. And, like I said, I'm a Linux noob ;)

[dondonjordan]

theres a little copper plate on the power switch that has to be removed. this is so that the swtch doesn't stick in when you push it. basically it makes it work like the power switch on a real computer. if you were to accidentally push the switch it would just cut all power to your pc.  

[dmastachief]

whats that golden era thing and where can i get it

[msuc5vette]

Is there any reason why you chose mini itx vs micro atx? It appears that the micro atx might be smaller and less expensive alternative. Cool idea!

[mehoocool]

ITX is the smaller design about 7" by 7" where as micro atx is larger, and atom itx boards are the cheapest option

[markyb86]

What software are you running for the frontend?

[xchrissypoox]

(removed by author or community request)

[matbird]

hey xchrissypoox, did you drop a core 2 duo in there? i've been looking at that same mobo for this project, but was a bit concerned over the height and running temperature of the C2Ds. i take it that it fits ok and temp isn't a problem?

[the_burrito_master]

AWESOME I love that old system but I'm gonna have to acquire a broken one first before I do that.

[disintegrator]

How much did this all cost?

[broken fusion!]

How does it look on the TV? Last time I hooked a pc up to a tv it didn't look so good, but that was a couple of years ago.

[hatsuli]

Well, looks fine to me ;-) As long as the resolution is set properly (i.e. not too high), and the S-Video cable isn't picking up interference, you should be fine. Bear in mind, using composite for the video will be noisy and blurry. S-Video is a tad sharper and picks up much less noise.

[erens]

What do you use as the frontend from which you access all emulators ? I really like the idea of using only controllers and not having to hook up a mouse and keyboard.

[hatsuli]

Read the Instructable carefully, I explain everything.

[erens]

Thanks for the quick reply. I read in step 8 that you are talking about a frontend but I cannot seem to find any url's or the name of the frontend. Or do you mean the emulators themselve by 'frontend' and in that case, how do you choose which emulator / console you want to play on from the moment you login ? Thanks and cheers.

[hatsuli]

The frontend I'm currently using is GameEx, but I'm currently writing my own custom software to use instead (http://gorilla.themikeflynn.com)

[tommyboy16]

I was wondering what you would need to do in order to be able to emulate N64 on your NES, as I don't see it in your list of consoles.

[hatsuli]

Nintendo 64 is a power-hungry console to emulate -- it might be too much for my specs. I'm testing the performance today and will be posting my results later.

[hatsuli]

I've run tests on a few Nintendo 64 games, and updated step 9 with my results. Looks like I have another console on the list!